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Learn Your Craft with a Career in the Trades

Do you want a career working with your hands? Do you like to build and fix things? Work won’t FEEL like work when you’re doing something you enjoy! With a career in the trades, you’ll put your passion and skills to good use. Learn and perfect your craft with a rewarding and exciting career in the trades.

Professionals with a career in the trades are also known as skilled workers. That’s because they have a specific area of expertise. Through education and training, trade workers primarily perform manual labor. This working class of people are also called blue-collar workers. Historically, blue-collar workers wore blue uniforms and worked in manufacturing or construction whereas white-collar workers wore button down shirts and worked in an office environment. Blue collar, tradespeople have a particular set of skills that keep infrastructure intact. They maintain electrical systems, plumbing, and the nuts and bolts that hold buildings together. The trades include a wide variety of career options such as welding, HVAC/R, plumbing, and much more.

For many years, high schools focused on preparing students for four year colleges. With more people pursuing liberal arts degrees, less people had the skills necessary to perform the manual labor that’s so essential to everyday life. Now, the focus is shifting back to the trades. The people currently working in the trades are fast approaching retirement. In 2012, 53 percent of skilled-trade workers in the United States were 45 years and older.1 Someone needs to fill their shoes, and that someone could be you!

Among the long list of opportunities, a trade profession also offers a rewarding future. For example, HVAC/R technician jobs are projected to grow 21 percent by 2022, which is faster than average.2 Skilled welders have versatility across many industries. The aging infrastructure in the United States opens the door for welders to help rebuild bridges, highways, and buildings.3

Charter College recognizes the ongoing demand for more trade professionals. We offer a variety of vocational training including both Associate and Certificate programs with classes starting every five weeks and a year-round schedule. Find a campus near you!